Did any of you catch the Perseids on Thursday night? Jeremy, Kaweah, and I spent the night on the deck. Those two slept while I shot the meteor shower. We had clear skies and even when a few clouds began to build on the Continental Divide, they dissipated after a little bit. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such good viewing conditions before! But first, you need to see the Milky Way from my deck. It’s gorgeous.

our galaxy, the milky way

The reddish lights are town center, but they didn’t interfere too much with my shoot. The rest of the Milky Way photos are here. We saw many many meteors Thursday night (a lot fewer Friday night, but still at least a dozen after sitting around for an hour). If you didn’t get to see any, these shots are for you to enjoy!

And you can find the rest of the Perseid meteor shower photos on the photoblog.

My parents are visiting with us for a few days and Kaweah has been in heaven because my dad spoils her like crazy. They are loving the cooler and drier weather here (in comparison to hot and humid southern Virginia) as well as the lovely Colorado scenery. Saturday was my mom’s birthday, so we went to celebrate in grand fashion at Flagstaff House for dinner. We all had the Chef’s nine course tasting menu. I’ll leave you with photos from the night’s meal. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

lovely little flowers at our table

hors d’oeuvres and a special birthday wish on the menu

complimentary appetizer of thin pastry over duck confit with mushrooms

Your pictures of the night sky literally take my breath away! I love looking at the stars at night but the night sky here does not look anything like yours. So beautiful. Thanks for posting them. I really loved looking at them.

Wow, thanks for the food porn and the beautiful sky photos. What a nice way to start my morning! Now I just have to figure out what to eat that won’t make me sad after looking at those amazing pictures!

Thank you, thank you for the star and meteor photos. We tried to get away form the city lights, but high clouds came in and reflected back so much light that we could only glimpse a few streaks. These are magnificent! Now I can show my daughter what I was *hoping* to see.

Stunning…. what a lovely way to spend your birthday weekend, with the beautiful night time display (as if just for you…), with your loved ones (Jeremy & Kaweah), and that beautiful meal! thank goodness the portions appear small, because there’s no way I’d leave a scrap of that beautiful food on my plate! Happy belated b-day Jen and thanks for sharing those magical pictures.

LOL, your pictures had me captivated, upon re-review, I see that it was your beautiful MOTHERS birthday! Happy belated birthday to your mom! aren’t mom’s the best….. Thanks again for sharing the pictures!

do you know what’s gorgeous? your photos. no joke. THANK YOU for these amazing shots. too much cloud cover in NJ this year. your pictures always make me miss Colorado so much it makes me ache. including your shots of dinner at Flagstaff! i was talking to my sister on the phone after i read this post and told her how envious i was, and she said she could hear it in my voice. living vicariously through you~ ;) thanks again, as always.

Thanks all for the bday wishes – Mom had a great time! FYI – you can’t see the skies like this with the naked eye – long exposures bring out a lot of the colors and the details which is why astrophotography is so much fun! To try it yourself, get a tripod, open your aperture wide, focus on infinity and try some long exposures. I had to bump up the exposures in post proc quite a bit (if I expose for too long, I have to do some subtracting to get rid of excessive noise in the image).

Jamie – well, I’m in awe of YOUR work :)

Sam – yay! I’m so glad you’re going to share the photos with your daughter. We need more women in science!! :)